article in 2011 reports, inter alia, that “[s]ince the Land Law was approved in 2001, more than 200 peasant leaders have been murdered throughout the country, and specifically in the Sur del Lago area [approximately] 60 campesinos have been killed, due to their resistance and struggle against landowners who use force.”28 In the border zone alone, between 2001 and 2002, at least five peasant leaders were murdered. 29 B. Attack against Joe Luis Castillo González, Yelitze Moreno and her son Luis César Castillo B.1. Background 38. The attorney Joe Luis Castillo González, his wife Yelitze Moreno, with a degree in education, and their son Luis César Castillo Moreno had lived in the city of Machiques, State of Zulia, since 1999. Mr. Castillo was the General Coordinator of the Office for Social Action and Human Rights of the Apostolic Vicariate of Machiques (“OASVAM” for its Spanish acronym), and worked on the border area between Venezuela and Colombia on issues related to indigenous peoples and refugees. 30 His work involved providing legal counseling 2003 (File of attachments to the Merits Report, Annex 8, pages 87 to 102). Likewise, the representatives cited a press release stating that by 2011 “256 peasant leaders ha[d] lost their lives in the last eight years, carried out by hired killers”, given that as of May 2011 “only one person has been charged for the material or intellectual authorship of these crimes”, and that “just in the South of Lake Maracaibo, in the State of Zulia, 50 such killings of peasant leaders have occurred. On several occasions, social organizations denounced the links between hired klllers and several landowners”, Cf. Press report published in Ciudad CCS on May 26, 2011, entitled “Killers of campesinos go unpunished” (File of attachments to the brief of pleadings and motions, Volume II, Annex 88, pages 2343 a 2347). The Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in Venezuela of 2007 of the Human Rights Vicariate of Caracas, in the section on “Situation of defenders of the right to land”, states that “[t]he violence in rural areas not only affects peasant leaders who defend their right to land, but also simple campesinos or farmers who make a living in the countryside and are immersed in the agrarian reform process.” It notes that in addition to the sixteen defenders of the right to land whose human rights have been violated, during the period covered by the report (from 1997 to 2007) 33 campesinos were murdered, one disappeared and sixteen were injured in different incidents (File of attachments to the brief of pleadings and motions, Volume III, Annex 90, pages 2351 to 2515). 28 Cr. Press report published by the Banco Agrícola de Venezuela C.A., Banco Universal, on March 14, 2011 entitled “Chávez: Llegó la Revolución al Sur del Lago para liberar la tierra” (File of attachments to the brief of pleadings and motions, Volume II, Annex 87, page 2342). 29 The killing on January 10, 2002 “of Merida leader Luis Mora, killed [by shots from firearms] in the border zone of the states of Mérida and Zulia”; the death of Pedro José Doria Castillo, a doctor and agrarian leader, who was murders “by a group of gunmen with their faces hidden with balaclavas”, and the killing of Armando García, a peasant leader, which occurred on September 19, 2002, in the community of Encontrados, State of Zulia. According to PROVEA, Carlos Parra was killed in that same attack, “since he was in the line of fire of the gunmen who killed the leader Armando García”. Cf. PROVEA, Asesinatos en el Sur del Lago, September 27, 2002 (File of attachments to the brief of pleadings and motions, Volume II, Annex 82, pages 2172 to 2174) and PROVEA, Violence in the South of Maracaibo: Killings of Activists in Zulia (File of attachments to the brief of pleadings and motions, Volume II, Annex 81, pages 2168 to 2171). According to the representatives, these attacks against people dedicated to the defense of land rights, were first seen in the State Zulia, where the Law on Land and Development began to be implemented. Cf. Human Rights Vicariate of Caracas, Report on the Situation of Defenders of Human Rights in Venezuela, supra. The murder of Pedro Doria and his son, as a result of the land conflict, was also mentioned by expert witness Antonio Uribarrí, Cf. Statement of Antonio Urribarrí, supra. Por otro lado, PROVEA stated that the acts of violence during that period had an important precedent in the murder of Wilmer Avendaño, leader of most of the land committees from south of the lake, in Caño Caimán, on February 2, 2001. Likewise, the death of Licinio Lago, member of the Movimiento Quinta República (Fifth Republic Movement) (MVR) was reported and that of a local campesino leader, Caño Caimán, on October 30, 2001. Cf. PROVEA, Report Anual 2002 (File of attachments to the brief of pleadings and motions, Volume II, Annex 71, page 2093). 30 Cf. The State, in its response brief, confirmed the report as true, stating that “it confirms the facts recounted by the alleged victims [, indicated] in Report No. 22/07 [of the Inter-American Commission], Petition 259/06, Admissibility of the case of Joe Luis Castillo González et al. on […]March 9, 2007, paragraph [12]”. Said paragraph 12 reads: “the petitioners report [ed] that one of the main tasks carried out by Joe Castillo was to help 12